A prime piece of federal real estate in Silicon Valley has been auctioned off to a San Francisco buyer.
On Tuesday, an entity tied to developer Presidio Bay Ventures emerged as the highest bidder for a 17-acre campus at 345 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park, home to Meta and other tech giants.
The San Francisco-based developer put in an all-cash $137 million offer for the property, which had been marketed for sale since 2022 and is not part of the Trump administration’s recent efforts to sell off government-held real estate.
Three bidders participated in the action, and the second-highest offer was $120 million, according to a recording of the sealed-bid auction provided by the General Services Administration. The sale is pending a Department of Justice antitrust review and the delivery of payment. It is expected to close within 90 days.
The property comprises 17 total buildings, mainly laboratories and office space. It was formerly home to the U.S. Geological Survey, a government agency focused on scientific research.
The GSA had requested a minimum offer of $85 million. The Almanac first reported the successful bid.
It is not immediately clear how Presidio Bay intends to utilize the property, which also houses a child-care facility and a credit union. Cyrus Sanandaji, the firm’s founder and managing principal, did not respond to a request for comment.
In February, local real estate developer Brad Ehikian — younger brother of Stephen Ehikian, a former Salesforce executive who has been appointed acting administrator of the GSA — submitted an unsolicited offer of $65 million to purchase the campus. Although Stephen recused himself from overseeing the proposal, the bid immediately drew an anonymous complaint to the GSA’s inspector general’s office, accusing Brad of trying to buy federal property at below-market value, according to records reviewed by the Washington Post. The GSA declined the offer.
Sanandaji worked at the GSA as a contract officer and global project manager from 2009 to 2012 before founding Presidio Bay. According to his LinkedIn profile, he sourced and negotiated more than $400 million in real estate lease transactions for the U.S. government during that tenure.
Since launching his firm, Sanandaji has targeted luxury office spaces for investment while trading and developing residential properties. Presidio Bay also developed 11 government properties across the country.
The Menlo Park campus is a little more than a mile away from one of the firm’s most successful developments, Springline, a 760,000-square-foot mixed-use community that has been fully leased since its completion in 2022.
Notably, Presidio Bay is also renovating an 11-story office building at 88 Spear St. in downtown San Francisco that it acquired at a steep discount in 2023.
The firm announced this month that it had closed on a 121-unit apartment building at 1401 Mission St. in SoMa known as Olume. The $39.75 million purchase was made in partnership with Washington, D.C.- based Artemis Real Estate Partners.